How do prokaryotes sense and respond to changing environmental conditions? Our research explores this question by uncovering the signal transduction mechanisms used by cyanobacteria to sense and adapt to changing environments. We focus on how fluctuating light and nutrient conditions affect the composition of colorful antennae called phycobilisomes that are used to harvest the light energy that drives photosynthesis. Since cyanobacterial photosynthesis produces nearly 50% of the Earth’s oxygen, it is important to understand the regulation of phycobilisome biogenesis. The Kehoe Lab, January 2006. From left to right: Nadya Lebedeva, David Kehoe, Lina Li, Ryan Bezy, Lenny Weiss, Andrian Gutu, Rick Alvey |
 “Cyanobacteria” written in Chinese using Fremyella diplosiphon cells. The left half of the plate was covered with a red filter and the right half with a green filter during growth. Plate and photo by Lina Li. |
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 Lina Li displays remarkable dedication to her research by pipetting on her wedding day. |
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 Rick Alvey tends his cyanobacterial cultures in temperature controlled, red and green light boxes in the Kehoe lab. |
 David Kehoe and Kazuki Terauchi in the summer of 2005 at the 3rd Japan-German Joint Seminar on Functional Genomics in Cyanobacteria in Chiba, Japan. |
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Last updated:
24 April, 2006 Comments: contact us Copyright 2005, The Trustees of Indiana University |
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A fluorescence photomicrograph of Fremyella diplosiphon filaments grown on plates. Red is fluorescence from a phycobilisome protein called phycoerythrin. Photo by Lina Li.